Ringland Group has put The 1852 Hotel and the Town Square bar in Belfast on the market for £2.85m.
The property, which began life as a mid-19th-century dance school, features 21 bedrooms in total (17 double rooms and four quad rooms) together with an 18-person group suite. The sale includes secured planning permission for five additional bedrooms to the rear of the property.
The sale is a strategic move to redeploy capital into Ringland Group’s £17m development pipeline, which includes a new 76-bed hotel on Callender Street and a rooftop bar on Howard Street.
Peter Ringland, managing director of Ringland Group, said: “The 1852 Hotel has been a pleasure to own for the past decade, but the time is right to pass on the torch. This move allows us to focus our energy on our pipeline of new projects, including our new Bottleworks development on Callender Street.”
Andrew McWhirter, general manager of the hotel, added: “This is an incredibly systemised business; we have worked hard to implement Lean principles across all departments, making it one of the most efficient operations in the city. We are so excited for the next chapter – we have built something very special here on Botanic, and we cannot wait to meet the next custodian of this historic building as I lead our team into the future.”
Paul Collins, from CBRE’s hotels team, which has been appointed to market the opportunity, said: “We are excited to be selling this highly profitable hotel which has considerable upside potential including the opportunity to add five bedrooms, with full planning consent in place for this extension.”
